by A. K. Evans
“I didn’t,” she assured me.
“Then you can understand why I might have a hard time believing that my brother would have sent this,” I reasoned. “How do I know that the two of you didn’t simply create a fake email to cover yourselves because I caught you yesterday?”
“That’s what Skye thought you would say,” Kat answered. “And that was precisely the reason we didn’t come to you with just that immediately. We knew we needed more evidence.”
Still in disbelief that Kat had gone behind my back, I shook my head again and said, “I don’t understand, Kat. You sat there with me when we learned what Skye did. What made you decide to even talk to her after that?”
Skye looked down at her lap.
Kat’s eyes slid to Kieran briefly. There was a distinct look of embarrassment there, and I started to worry that I was suddenly going to learn that the man I just realized I’d fallen in love with was somehow involved.
Fortunately, when Kat spoke, I learned that wasn’t the case at all. She was simply embarrassed to admit what she had to admit.
“It was the television shows,” Kat muttered.
“What?”
“You know, like Law and Order and CSI,” she explained. “I watch the police and detective shows all the time, and when I sat in the conference room when you confronted Skye, I watched her body language. She didn’t respond like someone who was guilty, and her reaction made me question the whole thing. So, I decided to reach out to her to ask her about it.”
She had to be kidding.
She got a hunch based on fictional television shows?
And now she was accusing my brother of trying to sabotage me.
“This is ludicrous,” I muttered.
“You said you had other evidence,” Kieran interjected, bringing the focus of the conversation back to where it needed to be.
Taking in a deep breath, I could tell Kat was preparing to give me information she didn’t want to share. This information might have been more difficult for her to share than telling me that she believed Porter was the one responsible for what was happening.
I couldn’t imagine what could be worse than that but tried to prepare myself for it anyway.
After swallowing hard, Kat admitted, “I might have stayed here after hours, hiding in the bathroom until everyone left, so I could search for the information we needed. I did it several times.”
My eyes widened.
“I know that’s wrong, Elise, I just…” she trailed off as she got choked up. She took a minute to get herself together before she continued, “I love my job. Loved my job. And I wanted to see Flynn Beauty rock this next launch and bounce back better than ever. I never intended for all of this to happen.”
Now it was my throat getting tight. That was the Kat I knew. The one who loved her job and bent over backward to do whatever was in the company’s best interests. She was good at what she did. But if everything she was saying was true, then apparently, she was better at more than just being a personal assistant, though.
“So, what did you find?” I asked.
“At first, nothing,” she said.
Skye added, “We’re not nearly as technically savvy as Porter. So, there was no way for Kat to get on his computer if it had already gone to sleep by the time she made it in there. In those instances, with a password required to access the computer, she was left to snoop around his desk. On one of the two occasions she did manage to get on his computer, she found the email you’re holding in your hand.”
“Beyond that, there was nothing I could find on the computer that led me to believe he was doing anything wrong,” Kat shared. “But I had a gut feeling he was just being smart about what he was doing by not leaving a virtual paper trail. Unfortunately for him, he left a physical paper trail.”
“What?” I asked.
Kat pulled out her phone, tapped on the screen a few times, and held it out in my direction. Once again, Kieran reached out to take it and handed it to me. I stared at the picture of a Post-it note with my brother’s handwriting on it.
“Right around the same time the spring collection was scheduled to arrive from the manufacturing labs, I found that note,” she started. “I searched later and found that the address is actually to a storage unit. Since Porter also wrote down a date and time on that same note, I figured that’s where I needed to be.”
Suddenly, this was getting a little too uncomfortable for me to handle. She had followed him somewhere. I didn’t know what my brother had a storage unit for, but so far, there was nothing she told me that implied he’d done anything wrong.
“We both went there,” Skye told me. “Initially we had been concerned he’d spot us, but Porter was so distracted, he never paid attention to anything going on around him.”
“What did you see?” Kieran asked, his hand giving my shoulder a gentle squeeze.
Skye reached into the envelope again and pulled out a couple of pictures. She handed them over. Sure enough, Porter was at the storage unit, and someone was using a forklift to unload pallets off the back of a truck. I recognized the merchandise on the pallets.
“Shit,” I whispered.
Kieran’s hold on me tightened.
“None of this made sense to me,” Kat said. “So, one day during lunch, I went down into the warehouse after the spring collection was delivered. I told one of the workers that you wanted to do your due diligence on the new collection and wanted me to bring up a couple. I expected we’d be short some product, but it looked like everything was there. It was only when I opened one of the boxes and saw that there wasn’t any actual makeup in the compacts or palettes that I figured out why Porter sent that email requesting all the extra packaging.”
“Elise, he was going to have you launch and ship out the empty product,” Skye explained. “He was going to put the nail in the coffin.”
“I can’t believe this,” I rasped. “I don’t understand why he would do this. I have to call him.”
I shot up off the couch and started moving toward my desk. No sooner had I picked up the phone when it was snatched out of my hand. I looked up and saw Kieran standing there.
He shook his head and set the phone back down on the receiver.
“Patience,” he said softly. “Let’s talk about this first.”
“Okay,” I replied quietly.
Turning around, he called, “Kat? Skye?”
“Yeah?”
“Would you mind… Elise and I need some time to talk about this and figure out what we’re going to do,” he explained. “Could you please leave that envelope here?”
They both immediately stood and replied in unison, “Sure.”
Before they walked out, Kat stopped and said, “I love you, Elise. I love Flynn Beauty. And I’d risk losing my job to protect this company. Once you have a chance to process this and get to the bottom of it, I hope that I’ll be able to come back here in some capacity. I’d even settle for being demoted. That’s how much I love this place.”
I didn’t know what to say. So, I didn’t respond. I gave her a slight nod.
A moment later, I was standing in my office alone with Kieran again.
And it was all I could do not to burst into tears again.
Kieran tipped his head to the side, sympathy written all over his face, as he engulfed me in his arms and said, “Lady.”
Feeling so defeated and betrayed, I slumped against him. Kieran took my weight and provided comfort and strength I didn’t know possible to feel from another human being.
“I don’t understand why he’d do this,” I murmured.
“I’ve never met him, so I can’t say either,” he replied. “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you asking him. You deserve to know.”
“I was going to ask him,” I told him. “You stopped me from calling him.”
Nodding, Kieran confirmed, “Yes, because you are running high on emotions. You need to think clearly before you jump in and make a bad situation even
worse.”
“I’m supposed to be launching a collection in a few days, Kier,” I reminded him. “I don’t think I can go ahead with it. I have no product.”
“But you know where it is,” he noted.
My brows pulled together. “I can’t very well just show up and demand my stuff back,” I argued. “I don’t have any rights to gain access to that storage unit.”
That’s when Kieran grinned at me. “Maybe not on your own,” he agreed. “But I’m thinking we can go in with the police.”
“That quick?” I asked.
“Did you pay for the items put in that unit?” he countered.
“Yes.”
“So, it was stolen.”
The moment Kieran saw that the realization dawned in my face, he went on and added, “I’ll call Logan.”
“What’s Logan got to do with this?” I asked.
“He can reach out to Kendall’s brothers,” Kieran explained. “Two of them are police officers for the RSPD. We’ll get you into that unit. You just need to gather up your invoices and those pictures. I’ll handle the rest.”
For several long seconds, I didn’t move. I stood there staring at Kieran.
He’d handle the rest.
Just like that. He was going to handle it.
He stopped me from flying off the handle and reacting immediately. I didn’t think he blamed me for feeling the way I did, but he was going to stop me from making a mistake that I’d later regret.
What did I do to deserve him?
“Thank you for being here, Kieran.”
He pulled me back against his chest and squeezed tight.
I had to admit it was an excellent place to be.
“What am I going to do about Porter?”
I looked over at Kieran from where I was sitting in his truck’s passenger seat, hoping he would give me an answer.
We were currently on our way back to Flynn Beauty headquarters. It had been several hours since my world was blown apart by Skye and Kat. And though there had still been a bit of lingering skepticism—perhaps a direct result of my need not to have what they suspected my brother of to be true—that doubt vanished the moment Kieran and I showed up at the storage unit with Kendall’s brothers. Because when we gained access to the unit that my brother had rented—proof provided by the company that owned the storage facility—I saw rows upon rows of my product.
Seeing it, reality hit me.
My brother did this.
Someone whose loyalty I should never have had to doubt.
Immediately, I moved back to the truck and grabbed my phone out of my purse. I started tapping on the screen, hitting far too many buttons in my state of anger. The only thought in my mind was that I hoped Porter answered because I had every intention of releasing my anger upon him.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to do that because, once again, Kieran plucked the phone from my hand before I even got to tap on Porter’s name.
“Hey!” I gasped as I looked up into Kieran’s empathetic eyes.
He slid my phone into his pocket.
“I need to call him,” I exploded, my voice growing louder with each word.
The look in Kieran’s eyes changed. “Patience,” he urged gently.
My voice dropped. “I’m so angry,” I seethed.
“I know, Elise,” he assured me. “But you need to trust me and be patient. You’ll get your chance.”
Trust him.
I had to trust him.
Kieran hadn’t lied to me.
Though I thought the same thing about Porter, and that had been a colossal mistake. My shoulders fell, the fight leaving me.
Kieran wrapped his arm around my back, his fingers landing on my opposite shoulder. He gave me a gentle squeeze and curled me into his body. As he led me back to the open storage unit door, I leaned into him for strength.
And it was a good thing I did.
Because when I stood there staring at the rows and rows of Flynn Beauty products, my heart broke. My brother did this to me.
I wanted to break down, but I refused to give him my tears. He didn’t deserve them.
What did send me over the edge was when, a moment later, I saw a convoy pull up. Logan, Knox, Avery, Ryker, and Nash all arrived with their trucks.
“What’s going on?” I asked Kieran.
“They’re here to help us get your stuff back to your warehouse,” he answered.
“What?” I rasped. “They can’t do that. That’s… it’s just too kind.”
“Relax, lady,” Kieran ordered. “Let them help.”
Since I wasn’t in a position to refuse their help, I nodded. But I did it with tears in my eyes. Kieran saw, and something moved over his face.
Instead of explaining what he was thinking, he lowered his head and touched his mouth to mine in a soft, sweet kiss. Then he whispered, “Don’t cry.”
By some miracle, I managed to pull myself together before too many tears fell.
Then, the gang walked up, and we got started. It was a good thing Kieran had called them because, in my heels, I was moving much slower than everyone else.
Even with all the help, it took a long time to get everything out and loaded up into the trucks. Though, I shouldn’t have been surprised considering how much was in the storage unit.
And now we were bringing everything back to Flynn Beauty where it belonged. It was too hard for me to ignore the fact that I still hadn’t had my chance to lash out at Porter, and since Kieran kept foiling my attempts, I decided to ask what I thought was a valid question.
He was the one who had set this whole plan into action, so I had to assume he had a plan when it came to my brother.
When he didn’t respond, I pressed, “Kieran, are you going to give me my phone back so I can call Porter?”
“Yes, but we need to get your stuff back into your warehouse where it belongs first,” he answered.
“Then what?” I questioned him.
“Colton and Memphis are going to hang out there with us,” he responded.
Colton and Memphis were Kendall’s brothers, her police officer brothers.
My head snapped in Kieran’s direction. “They are?” I asked, the surprise in my tone undeniable.
His eyes left the road for just a moment to glance at me. “Yes, they are.”
“Why?”
“Well, I’m guessing part of the reason is that you are Kendall’s friend, and they’ll do anything for her,” he began. “But the bigger reason is likely because your brother broke the law.”
“That’s nice of them to do for Kendall,” I murmured.
“She’s their sister,” Kieran reasoned. “I’d do the same for my sister, Shannon.”
A lump formed in my throat. I tried to swallow past it before I rasped, “Lucky me. I got the brother that would steal from me and try to destroy everything I’ve worked so hard to build.”
“Shit,” Kieran hissed. He reached across the center console, took my hand in his, and apologized, “I’m sorry, Elise. That was thoughtless of me.”
I squeezed his fingers and replied, “It’s okay. It was honest.”
The silence stretched between us, and I got lost in my thoughts again. Mostly, I continued to have the same questions swirling in my mind. At the forefront of it was the one question I wasn’t convinced I’d get an answer to.
Why did Porter do this?
“Elise?” Kieran called, breaking into my thoughts.
“Yeah.”
“Two things,” he began. “First, the plan. After we get everything back to the warehouse and all squared away, you will call your brother. You’re going to need to figure out how to keep your cool on the phone. Don’t let him know that you know what he’s done. Tell him there’s a problem, something you need help with, and hopefully, you’ll be convincing enough that he’ll come in.”
Porter didn’t even come into work today. He was sick. Or, so he said. I now doubted how valid that excuse had been, so I wasn’t s
ure he’d show up. The truth was that if he had been willing to do this to me, there was little chance that he’d show up for me if I needed him.
“What if he doesn’t show up?” I asked.
“Assuming he’s going to use being sick as his excuse, just try your best to make him believe you’re concerned about his well-being. See what he says and if he indicates whether or not he’s on the mend and planning to come back to work soon,” Kieran answered. “Worst case, we go to him.”
I could do that. If nothing else, I was determined. So, while I was furious about this whole situation, I knew I needed to pull a page out of Kieran’s book and remain focused.
“What’s the second thing?”
“What?”
“You said there were two things,” I reminded him. “What’s the second thing?”
There was a brief pause before Kieran declared, “I want you to know that no matter what happens here, how this all goes down, I’m going to get you through this. Okay?”
He was going to get me through this.
I wasn’t sure if he realized it or not, but he already was.
There was no doubt in my mind I wouldn’t have had the slightest clue about this whole situation if he hadn’t shown up today. If Kieran hadn’t been so concerned, thinking I was sick, that he decided to leave work so he could come and check on me, I’d still be wracking my brain trying to figure out what Kat and Skye had been plotting. I’d have been considering canceling the spring collection launch.
Suddenly realizing I hadn’t given Kieran a reply, I agreed, “Okay.”
It was quite some time later when the whole LT Motorsports crew had finished unloading the spring collection into the warehouse. It didn’t take nearly as long as it had at the storage unit because I had two forklifts in the warehouse that they were more than qualified to operate.
After I thanked them all for their help, Kieran slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out my phone. Holding it out to me, he reminded me, “Remember, you don’t know what he’s been up to, and you’ve got a situation here that you really need his help with.”
As I took the phone from Kieran, I dipped my chin. “Right.”